A Critique of Sanskritization from Dalit/Caste-Subaltern Perspective

Students and social scientists concerned with caste studies will agree to a socio-cultural phenomenon called Sanskritization among people of caste communities that are not recognized as belonging to castes primarily affiliated to either of the three varnas of Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaishya. What is Sanskritization? Following M. N. Srinivas, who put forward the concept of Sanskritization in Religion and Society among the Coorges of South India (1952) to explain upward social movement (?) among Hindu tribal groups or ‘lower’ caste groups imitating and gradually incorporating ‘upper’ caste people’s social, cultural behaviour, rituals, customs, and religious practices, there exist an array of works deliberating upon this collective behavioural instance called Sanskritization (Beteille, 1969; Gould, 1961; Patwardhan, 1973; Sachchidananda, 1977; Lynch, 1974). These studies have generally accepted Sanskritization as an effective tool for cultural integration between different caste groups by ensuring movements of people across caste barriers; in other words, Sanskritization spells a common idiom of social mobility (Beteille, 1969, p. 116). This paper does not support the view that Sanskritization has been an effective socio-cultural instrument in moving towards a society that does not swear by caste-principles. Rather, Sanskritization, a concrete social fact among the ‘lower’ castes people, seems to obliquely prove the productive logic of caste through the imitation of the Brahmin. Following Gramsci’s conceptualisation of the necessity of a subaltern initiative in any counter-hegemony project, the paper further argues that Sanskritization is regressive to the extent that it is antithetical to any such subaltern political initiative against caste.

Brand Choice Factors on Purchase Decision of Electric Vehicle: In Reference of Nepalese Customers

There are various factors which effect on the purchase decision of consumers. Brand choice factor is one of the important to determine the purchase decision. The demand of electric vehicle is increasing because of its contribution in health and environment. Nepalese consumers are also more being attracted towards the use of electric vehicle so in this context, the study conducted with the objective to identify the brand choice factor on purchase decision of electric vehicle. The study was conducted among the 55-electric vehicle of Kathmandu valley. The structured survey questionnaire was administered for the data collection. It was based on quantitative design. Simple random sampling design was adopted to select the respondents. There was no significant difference between male and female, as well as caste groups, whereas there was significant difference between the educational levels on their brand choice factors at the .05 significant levels. The future researcher can study on the role of other factors to determine the purchase decision of electric vehicle consumers.

Can health information through mobile phones close the divide in health behaviours among the marginalised? An equity analysis of Kilkari in Madhya Pradesh, India

Kilkari is one of the largest maternal mobile messaging programmes in the world. It makes weekly prerecorded calls to new and expectant mothers and their families from the fourth month of pregnancy until 1-year post partum. The programme delivers reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health information directly to subscribers’ phones. However, little is known about the reach of Kilkari among different subgroups in the population, or the differentiated benefits of the programme among these subgroups. In this analysis, we assess differentials in eligibility, enrolment, reach, exposure and impact across well-known proxies of socioeconomic position—that is, education, caste and wealth. Data are drawn from a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in Madhya Pradesh, India, including call data records from Kilkari subscribers in the RCT intervention arm, and the National Family Health Survey-4, 2015. The analysis identifies that disparities in household phone ownership and women’s access to phones create inequities in the population eligible to receive Kilkari, and that among enrolled Kilkari subscribers, marginalised caste groups and those without education are under-represented. An analysis of who is left behind by such interventions and how to reach those groups through alternative communication channels and platforms should be undertaken at the intervention design phase to set reasonable expectations of impact. Results suggest that exposure to Kilkari has improved levels of some health behaviours across marginalised groups but has not completely closed pre-existing gaps in indicators such as wealth and education.

Why Does the ‘Provincial Propertied Class’ Remain Provincial? Reading the Agrarian Question of Capital Through Caste

While labour linkages and flows between rural and urban India have been studied, there is little discussion on the implications of the agrarian question of capital for the urban. This is particularly important given the intertwining of caste and capital accumulation in India. If there are caste barriers to entry into accumulation in the urban, what does it mean for pathways of diversification of agrarian capital out of agriculture? In this article, we address this question by comparing the trajectories of capital accumulation in the urban by two agrarian caste groups, the Kongu Vellala Gounders (KVGs) in western Tamil Nadu and the Jats in Haryana. We argue that the dominance of specific caste groups in non-agrarian accumulation erects barriers for transition of agrarian capital into the urban. Such barriers are further aggravated by the increasingly adverse conditions under which capitalist farmers produce in rural India and by new barriers to entry posed by globalising market conditions. Finally, we suggest that differences in subnational politics account for differences in transition pathways between the two agrarian castes. We therefore argue that a caste-based reading is critical to understand how caste intersects with diversification of capital from the rural to the Indian urban.

Declining sikh space on the religious and political landscape of India

This study is devoted to highlighting the temporal trends and spatial variations in the concentration and growth of the major religious groups in India with special reference to the Sikh population. Such studies are gaining importance with the increasing penetration of both the religion and caste-composition in the political environment of the country. Although religious and caste interventions in politics are prevalent in all the elections, these become stronger as we move down from Parliamentary to Panchayat elections in which the voting pattern changes in favour of religion and caste groups. It has been observed that the share of Muslim population increased by 5.96% between 2001 and 2011, while it declined in the case of all other communities and the maximum decline (−8.02%) was noticed in the case of the Sikh population with the lowest share among all the major religious communities in India. The Sikh population also recorded the lowest growth rate of 8.42% against 24.65% and 16.76% witnessed by Muslims and Hindus respectively between2001 and 2011. The study is based on the religious data released by the Census of India.

How India’s Caste Inequality Has Persisted—and Deepened in the Pandemic

The economic impact of COVID-19 has been much harder on those at the bottom of the caste ladder in India, reflecting the persistence of a system of social stigmatization that many Indians believe is a thing of the past. Untouchability has been outlawed since 1947, and an affirmative action program has lowered some barriers for stigmatized caste groups. But during the pandemic, members of lower castes suffered heavier job losses due to their higher representation in precarious daily wage jobs and their lower levels of education. Lower caste families are less able to help their children with remote learning, which threatens to worsen labor market inequality in India. But Dalits, at the bottom of the caste ladder, have recently.

Hindus Us, Muslims, and the Rest Others in Roy's the Ministry of Utmost Happiness

This study explores self and othering in Roy's novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Roy took twenty years to complete this political romance. The narrator of this political romance talks about the others of Indian society, i.e., religious minorities, political traitors, and low caste groups. These others are always striving to secure a place in a biased Indian society. Their quest for identity has often led them to a blind alley where they have found themselves helpless and oppressed evermore. The situation has become worse under the government of the right-wing Hindu party BJP. This study is an attempt to explore the ways how the weaker part of the society is treated as another and outcast in a so-called secular state. Roy has presented the true face of India. This research tries to comprehend her mind and investigates The Ministry of Utmost Happiness multidimensional and multi-layered tale.

Narratives of Waste

This chapter analyzes the contradictory regional class and caste politics of large-scale land investments in Maharashtra, India, focusing on the conversion of peri-urban agricultural land into urban real estate. The chapter uses the case of the Khed special economic zones (SEZ) to explore these contradictions and unexpected twists in Maharashtra's land commodification tale. Whereas dominant agrarian castes long-invested in commodity agricultural production and with the deepest ties to urban capital vociferously protested land acquisition for the formation of a special economic zone, Adivasi “tribals” along with Dalit groups historically dependent on “waste” lands embraced forced land acquisition. It shows how historic narratives of waste that twin expectations about poor land quality to presumptions of wasteland occupants' social backwardness were leveraged by lower-class and -caste groups to portray land expropriation as a means of pursuing a place in the urban economy. Ultimately, the chapter highlights how fictions of waste that previously excluded the most socially subordinated groups from crop capitalism became an instrument of urban inclusion.

Understanding transitions in farming systems and their effects on livestock rearing and smallholder livelihoods in Telangana, India

Increasing food demands are causing rapid transitions in farming systems, often involving intensified land and resource use. While transitioning has benefits regarding poverty alleviation and food outputs, it also causes environmental and social issues over time. This study aims to understand the transitions in farming systems in a region in Telangana, from 1997 to 2015, and their effect on livestock rearing and smallholder livelihoods. We also examine the impact of the transitions on lower caste groups and women in particular. We collected data using a combination of methods, i.e., a household survey, focus group discussions, and secondary data sources, to build a comprehensive picture of the transitions in the region. We found that subsistence mixed farming systems transitioned to market-orientated specialized systems over a short time span. As the transition process gained momentum, households either intensified their production or got marginalized. Technological interventions, development programs with integrated approaches, and market demand for certain agricultural produce triggered increased regional production but also led to the scarcity of water, land, and labor. The transitions marginalized some of the households, changed the role of livestock in farming, and have been inclusive of both lower caste groups and women in terms of increased ownership of large ruminants and access to technologies. However, for women specifically, further increase in workload in the context of farming is also found.